1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method of accelerating the delivery of magazine issues to a new subscriber and to keep records of the number of issues delivered on an accelerated basis for adjustment against normally delivered issues.
2. Description of the Related Art
The magazine industry is old (200 years and counting), diversified and large. According to statistics, there are over 3,000 magazines published covering a diversity of subject matters, although only about 600 are tracked by trade organizations such as the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). The industry generates roughly $25 billion each year from the sale of advertising space, single copies on the newsstand and subscriptions. Each year Americans spend $8 billion to purchase over 300 million subscriptions. Of the 300 million subscriptions, approximately, 120 million are renewals and 180 million are new subscriptions.
The industry sells and services subscriptions in many different ways. Publishers often outsource subscription marketing. Presently, about 60% of all new subscriptions are provided by third party marketers known in the trade as subscription agents or xe2x80x9cagentsxe2x80x9d. Typically, the agent markets the initial subscription to consumers and turns over the information on a new subscriber to the publisher (or a publisher""s fulfillment house). The remaining 40% of the new subscription orders are placed directly with the publishers.
The filling of a subscription order and the servicing of the subscription are also typically outsourced to third party subscription providers known as fulfillment centers, fulfillment houses or fulfillment bureaus. The fulfillment centers collect and store information on each subscriber, including the name, address, term of subscription and payment; manufacture mailing labels; print, mail and process renewal notices and bills; and provide subscriber service. The fulfillment centers collect the information on the subscription orders from the publishers and the agents, bundles the information for different magazines and provide the number of subscribed issues with the names and addresses to printing houses. Printing houses are typically responsible for manufacturing trade publications, placing the subscriber""s name and address on the publication cover, and entering the copies into the mail stream. The printing houses then print the number of issues of each magazine required to fill the subscription orders. The name and address labels are also printed and attached to each issue and mailed out to each subscriber.
Methods for increasing the subscription sales of a magazine have been available. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,926,796 describes a method of converting a single sale of an issue of a magazine at a retail outlet to a subscription. However, the conversion of a single sale to a subscription does not mean that the subscriber will receive the next available issue or issues of the magazine.
Presently, the process of collecting the information on the new subscriptions, bundling the information, providing instructions to the printing houses, verifying payment, etc. takes time. As a result, the first issue mailed out in response to a new subscription order usually takes six to eight weeks, or even longer. The new subscriber is often warned of this delay prior to delivery of the first issue of the magazine subscription. Unfortunately, the information provided in magazines is xe2x80x9cnewsxe2x80x9d and is perishable. As such, xe2x80x9coldxe2x80x9d issues cannot be delivered to meet a new subscription order. Current issues must be supplied. The new subscriber is deprived of the information desired from the subscription during the delay. Further, a delay of six to eight weeks means that the revenue that should have been generated from the new subscription order for the 6 to 8 weeks is lost. This is particularly true for weekly magazines, where many issues are published between the time the order is made and the time when the order is fulfilled.
A system and method have been developed to accelerate the delivery of the first issue(s) of a publication as required to fill a new subscription order. The system and method collect the information on a new subscription order and based on the date when an order is received, determine the availability at the printing houses of a current issue of the magazine and instructs the printing house with an available current issue to accelerate the delivery of the current issue to the subscriber. The system and method further tracks the delivery of issues in response to a new subscription order to ensure that delivery of currently available issues is continued until the new subscription enters the regular fulfillment schedule. This ensures early and continuous delivery to fulfill the new subscription order. The system and method can also track the number of issues delivered under the accelerated delivery system and adjust the number of issues to be delivered for the full term of the subscription order.
In one aspect of the present invention, the system comprises a system of collecting new subscription orders; sorting the new subscription orders to determine the magazine subscribed to by a new subscriber, determine the current availability of the magazine ordered, determine the identity of a printing house with an available warehoused current issue and instructing the printing house with the available issue to deliver it to the new subscriber.
In another aspect of the invention, the method and system tracks the order to determine when the next issue will be delivered, and if it is not the next-in-line issue, the embodiment further instructs the accelerated delivery of the next-in-line issue to ensure continuity of delivery to fulfill a new subscription order.
In a further aspect of the invention, the method and system tracks the number of issues delivered by the accelerated delivery system and reconciles the issues delivered against the number of issues necessary to fulfill the new subscription order.
Additional aspects of the invention are described herebelow and defined by the appended claims. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.